Pachhikote circle RI Nilamani Biswal visited the illegal morrum quarries at Manjuri mouza where illegal mining was taking place and issued no mining order in the forest land.
But the officers and staffers working under road contractor firm Gayatri Projects limited here did not pay heed to it. The RI apprehending trouble from the mafias, who are said to have the backing of ruling party leaders, left the place and lodged an FIR at Korai Police Station against the raising contractor on Tuesday.
He also reported the matter to Vyasanagar Tehsildar Sapan Kumar Nanda. Biswal took the steps after the illegal mining was reported in various media pointing a finger at the nexus between the mafias and the forest officials.
Finding it difficult to avail morrum, earth and sand, the contractor firm hand-in-glove with some prominent ruling party leaders of Jajpur district has been excavating morrum from various places. In this manner, it has managed to lift lakhs of truckloads of good quality morrum from Manjuri Khadan merely on a temporary permit.
How the Gayatri firm obtained such permit on a forest land from the Revenue Department and the forest officials headed by Cuttack DFO Sudarshan Behera remained silent on the matter should be probed, demanded the locals here. Forester Duttahari Nayak, said to be very close to DFO Behera, has been collecting fat ransom from Gayatri, it is alleged.
As high level district revenue officials, DFO, Cuttack, two heavy weight ruling party leaders are in the support of road contractor, Gayatri, what will be the fate of the FIR filed by the RI at Korai is a foregone conclusion.